YasujironOzu’s uncharacteristically realistic, dark, urgent and empathetic melodrama is a fascinating work of the immediate post-war Japanese cinema focusing on an impoverished dressmaker (beautifully embodied by Kinuyo Tanaka) who must eventually prostitute herself to pay for her invalided son’s hospital bills. When her husband (Shuji Sano) finally returns home from war service, she attempts to revitalise their family life while wrestling with her dark secret. Ozu’s second film after the end of hostilities provides a surprisingly frank and clear-eyed gaze upon an “unresolved emotional vortex of sex, guilt, honour and deception” (Kevin B. Lee).

NONE: Yasujirō Ozu

ACTRESS: Kinuyo Tanaka

Duration: 84 mins

Country: Japan

Language: Japanese with English Subtitles

Date: 1948

Format: 35 mm, Black & White

Courtesy: Shochiku

Source: Shochiku

Rating: Unclassified 15+

Details

Film

A Hen in the Wind (1948)

Ozu’s uncharacteristically realistic, dark, urgent and empathetic melodrama is a fascinating work of the immediate post-war Japanese cinema.

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